


Alternate Views

by methylviolet10b



Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Prompt Fic, Retirement, Speculation, slash goggles optional but certainly plausible
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-26
Updated: 2015-07-26
Packaged: 2018-04-11 07:18:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 410
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4426334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/methylviolet10b/pseuds/methylviolet10b
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Holmes is not amused by another's literary efforts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Alternate Views

**Author's Note:**

> Written for JWP #25: Fanworks Through the Ages.  
> Warnings: Rather meta. Retirement-era speculation. Slash goggles optional but certainly plausible. And absolutely no beta. This was written in a huge rush. You have been warned.

“It’s appalling.”  
  
I had not expected such a vehement reaction from Holmes. If anything, I thought he would have privately dismissed the matter as trivial, and only acknowledged it insofar as it annoyed me. Instead, I found myself in the unexpected position of trying to calm him down, rather than the reverse. “My literary agent says that the stories are clearly derived from my work, true, and that I have a strong case if I wish to pursue it, but - ”  
  
“You should. You cannot allow this to stand.”  
  
“The so-called “case” is fairly bad, but I’d have thought you’d have been pleased by the clear hero-worship the author has for you personally, Holmes.”  
  
Holmes glared, and except for the silver in his hair and the increased lines in his face, he looked much the same as the man I’d started to write about all those years ago in Baker Street.  Certainly his wit had lost none of the bite that had always characterized him. “Either you’re being willfully obtuse, Watson, or that damnable modesty of yours is preventing you from stating –or perhaps even seeing – the corollary. Whatever respect you think the author might have shown me, he clearly has no such regard for you. And really, the idiocies of the so-called case aside, what kind of ‘genius detective’ willingly associates himself with such an idiotic, bumbling buffoon, much less shares rooms and cases with him?”  
  
I am ashamed to say that it took me a moment to truly understand Holmes’ meaning – and his underlying ire. He wasn’t offended on _his_ behalf, but on _mine_ , no matter how he tried to deflect it as reflecting back on himself. I felt my cheeks flush as if it was midday on a hot August day here in Sussex, rather than a cool autumn morning in mid-October. “I see your point, Holmes.”  
  
“Good.” Holmes’ eyes shone. “And once you’ve dealt with the matter, perhaps you should remind your reading public of what a genuine case taken on by Sherlock Holmes looks like – as imperfectly but faithfully related by his entirely worthy, but often underappreciated, biographer, friend, and companion.”  
  
I could never write words such as these into my stories. They did not fit the public image I had created of Holmes or of myself. But I cherished them, and the thousands of others like them over the years, just the same.  
  
I picked up my pen with a glad heart and started writing.

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted July 25, 2015


End file.
